Just two years after Virginia’s first house of the Lord was dedicated, ground has been broken for a second.
Hundreds of Latter-day Saints, civic leaders and community members witnessed the groundbreaking ceremony of the Winchester Virginia Temple on Saturday, Aug. 9. This will be the second house of the Lord in this South Atlantic state and the first in northern Virginia.
Elder Robert M. Daines — a General Authority Seventy and second counselor in the United States Northeast Area presidency — presided over the ceremony. He also offered a prayer on the site as its construction phase began.
Information about the ceremony, also broadcast online, was published in an Aug. 9 news release on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
Elder Daines said that more than an event or photo op, temple groundbreakings echo something deeper. “These are moments when God’s people begin to make a space for Him to dwell with them.”
He noted the temple is useful only if it shapes patrons outside of its walls — moving them toward greater compassion, integrity and service, helping them to become like their Heavenly Father.
“We are shaped by our temple worship and our attempts to build and become worthy of that,” said Elder Daines. “Every temple is a sign of God’s hope for us and an invitation to live with and be like Him. We make promises, but really we learn to be fitted and formed by these promises.”
In his prayer on the site, Elder Daines pleaded that those who work on constructing the temple may be kept safe and granted joy, satisfaction and peace in their work. He also asked Heavenly Father for a blessing upon those seeking His solace and grace.
“May this temple be not only a refuge or retreat from the world,” he prayed, “but a beginning, a herald of Thy peace and a beachhead of Thy heaven on earth.”
Among the groups invited to break ground on the site was a children’s choir from the Gainesville Virginia Stake. Earlier in the ceremony, the chorus of Primary children sang “Our Prayer to Thee,” whose lyrics were written by Church President Russell M. Nelson.
About the Church in Virginia
Planned as a single-story edifice of 30,000 square feet, the Winchester temple will be constructed on an 11.27-acre site at 200 Merrimans Lane, Winchester, Frederick County, Virginia.
President Nelson announced a house of the Lord for Winchester on April 2, 2023, in general conference. It was one of 15 locations identified, including temples for two other eastern U.S. states — North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
Before 2018, Virginia had no temples dedicated or announced. Now just seven years later, the state has one temple operating, one in its construction phase and two in planning stages.
The Richmond Virginia Temple was dedicated by President Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor in the First Presidency, on May 7, 2023. In his dedicatory prayer, President Oaks pleaded, “Please bless all who worthily serve in Thy holy temples that they may participate with joy and understanding, that Thy work will go forward in power to fulfill Thy purposes for all Thy children.”
The state’s temples in planning and design stages include the Roanoke Virginia Temple, announced in 2023, and the Norfolk Virginia Temple, announced in 2025.
Virginia’s first stake was established in Richmond in 1957. The Church grew quickly in the state during the 1970s and 1980s, and 10 new stakes were established in that time.
Today, approximately 100,000 Latter-day Saints live in Virginia and comprise over 210 congregations.
